Beyond the transfers, the head coaches, the stadium reductions and the backhanders to recruits, the NCAA can change something else that would really take the sport a step forward: The schedules.

The ACC and SEC play 8 in-conference games and 4 non-conference games, while the Big Ten, Pac-12 and Big XII all play nine.

Gus Malzahn and Nick Saban both expressed a preference for nine games. In fact, Nick Saban has been lobbying for it since 2012, while Gus Malzahn last year admitted he’s had a Damascus experience on scheduling (probably because Auburn’s is so arduous year after year): “Nine I think is best for us moving forward to make the schedules more equal across the conference.”

Kirby Smart of Georgia – also one of the SEC’s most powerful coaches – joined the ‘pro’ shout. He said: “I think it [would be] a good thing, but I think you will have teams with more losses. Does it affect a team getting in the playoff? I don’t know, but I know you have a lot more games to get up for, a lot more good rivalry games. It’s not just about travelling, it’s just as much about the atmosphere of playing an SEC opponent, I think you are playing more comparable teams to your talent level, I think it’s important for college football.”

Other coaches haven’t expressed an opinion – possibly because half of them lost their jobs after the 2017 season, and the new ones have yet to have a voice. The only time that voters voted to keep the schedule as-is was 2013. Will Muschamp, while he was at Florida, said that it was likely to move to nine games in 2013, but never happened.

The ACC has done the same. While this isn’t a huge surprise bearing in mind the ACC and SEC are two of the biggest superpower conferences in college football right now (although the ACC Network is still going to be minor compared to the SEC Network and the Big Ten Network (that may well turn around during basketball season), it has to change.

For the fans! 

Why? Because not only are Big Ten, Big XII and Pac-12 looking at tougher, in-conference schedules which have in the end worked out nicely for the ACC and SEC, which have captured the last four National Championships. Both Clemson and Alabama in the last four days have lost less than five games. Combined.

Also in the SEC, the way that the rivalries work is rather stupid. What could be more dislikeable than putting together one permanent rival and one division rival?

It means that the likes of Alabama and Georgia hardly play each other in the regular season, and teams like Auburn get royally screwed because they have to play Georgia – and Alabama – every season.

We get that SEC fans like their rivalries. We love them too. If it was a nine-game format, the Iron Bowl will still exist. So will the Egg Bowl, the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party, and LSU vs Alabama. We can still have the major cross-divisional rivalries like the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry (Auburn vs Georgia) and the Third Saturday in October, but we can also have one more cross-divisional games, which means the fans (probably quite important) get to see more East vs West games (which may reverse the trend of declining attendances, too), which will also be good for the ones that pay the bills – the SEC Network, CBS or ESPN.

Why should the SEC and ACC changing their schedules change college football in general? Easy. It shuts up the argument altogether. It makes for equality between FBS Conferences, shutting up the whole “we play more in-conference games than you”, because the other one (“We play in a more difficult conference than you”) becomes null and void. Not only that, it’s an easier job for the College Football Play-Off Committee to work out who’s should be ‘in’ with a flat schedule, and also, it pretty much shuts-up massive controversy.

What about the NCAA?

The NCAA will argue that ‘scheduling is not our business’, but that’s absolute crap. If the NCAA is happy to govern everything else, then why not govern one of the key aspects of the game? Not only that, but why are the conferences letting coaches or Athletic Directors – who all have biases on this subject but may well be fired before the next vote comes out (the SEC last voted on it in 2013 and ACC ADs voted on it in 2016) – vote on this altogether. The NCAA should mandate this and that would be that.

The ones that will suffer, inevitably, will be the smaller non-FBS schools, which rely on coming to a stadium and getting the living crap beaten out of them for $1 million (there are quite a few exceptions.

But unfortunately, college football is not a charity. Smaller FCS schools will still make their money. But unless there will be less of them. Will this lead to a shutdown of smaller programs? Sadly, probably. But will it be better for college football as a whole we see more and more in-conference rivalries? Definitely.

I read a riveting tweet to Sports Illustrated’s Andy Staples which read: “What would be the most Twitter-melting CFB moments before Twitter was around?’

In other words, moments in college football history prior to March 2007, when Twitter exploded on the scene at South by Southwest (March 2007)

I added a few things, which included the B.S. call against Miami in the National Championship Game of 2003 (NCBS), any of the FSU-Miami ‘Wide Rights’ (#WDR) and ‘Wide Lefts’ (#WDL), the Convicts vs Catholics (#ConvictCath), and – of course – Vince Young (#VY) running the ball in against USC in the 2006 National Championship Game (#VYvsUSC). I also wanted ALL of Barry Sanders’ highlights from the 1988 season (#Barry) because he was the best running back whoever lived (sorry Herschel and Bo).

Of course, there were SEC calls (Auburn vs Georgia OTs) and #RunLindseyRun (Georgia vs Florida 1980), but it got me thinking.

What moments from the SEC would have made Twitter melt if it had existed back in the day? Sorry Texas A&M and Missouri fans, you don’t get in – although Missouri’s #FifthDown game would have melted Twitter.

We could go for Spurrier snark – and those remarks continue to live in history (#FreeShoesUniversity) – although my favorite that still stands was about Auburn and a fire that destroyed 20 books: “The real tragedy was that 15 hadn’t been colored yet,” so here we go.

1. Nate Northington steps on the field against Ole Miss

Nate Northington stepped on the field against Ole Miss as the first African-American to play in the SEC in 1967. That was one of the biggest landmarks in college sports, and would have melted Twitter. For good reasons. There are no clips of this happening, so we went with something a little salient.

2. Bear Bryant dies and days later, his funeral. Alabama fans mourns. College football mourns. Sports mourn. He was the greatest football coach (prior to Nick Saban and Bill Belichick’s reigns in latter years), and his hat and chainsmoking habit made him a king forever. Why it’s No.1? Because whether you are a Rockne, Hayes, Paterno or a Saban fan, it’s hard to imagine a coach that was more revered in college football. Fun fact: He tried to integrate African-American players at Kentucky and Texas A&M but was turned down. After pressure from Alabama’s governing bodies, he was not allowed to recruit African Americans. When he did, his first

3.  “Goodbye. In Your Face”

Bo Jackson’s run in the 1983 Iron Bowl. The line: “In your face” would have elicited more tweets and comebacks than Jen Bielema’s #Karma tweet did.

4. “Run Lindsey Run”

Larry Munson’s scream down the microphone in the 1980 would have been on repeat (#RunLindsayRun), as well as live videos later on of drunk Georgia fans burning down **** in St Simon’s. And then Larry Munson would have to issue an apology for ‘encouraging violence’ and the World Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party would be renamed “The Family Fun in Jacksonville” due to alcohol-related worries.

5. Billy Cannon

The Billy Cannon run-back against Ole Miss in 1959 in one of the biggest games in college football (#Cannon). Added in would be .gifs showing cannons, as well as shots of your usual horrified Ole Miss fan.

6. ARE YOU HERSCHEL WALKER?

HE RAN OVER TWO MEN….There would be memes of Larry Munson having a heart attack. Plus there would be numerous tweets of people saying #ImNotHerschelWalker. Georgia would make a ‘thing’ about it and sell loads of merchandise….and Walker would not see a thing.

7. Bluegrass Miracle

Kentucky beating LSU. Kentucky’s head coach Guy Morriss got the Gatorade bath before the final whistle. And then Marcus Randall hit Devery Henderson. There would be a lot of #TooSoon shots and people making (a lot) of fun of Kentucky fans.

8. The Loudest The Swamp Has Ever Been

Florida State walk into Florida as the No.1 team in the country facing off. A fight before the game (#GatorFight). A great account is that someone was celebrating so hard that they fell off the ‘Gators’ wall and fell on top of the writer. I can’t believe Sean McDonough was doing the call back in the day.

9. Bats**t crazy Arkansas Games

Twice in three seasons, Arkansas played in a SEVEN-OVERTIME game. There was one in 2001 , which would have sparked enough chatter, but then there was the equally-crazy 2003 game against Kentucky in 2003. There would be sly commentary from Twitter about finishing the game because church was starting soon, methinks.

10. The LSU ‘Earthquake Game’

The noise in Tiger Stadium when LSU beat Auburn was so loud that it made it onto the Richter Scale (#LSUEarthquake). It helped when the fans had been drinking Jack Daniel’s for 12 hours straight, too.

Jalen Hurts didn’t last a long time in College Football’s infamous transfer window: He’s going to Oklahoma.

In a piece in the Player’s Tribune, he thanked Alabama for his career, and then said that he was “taking his talents” to Norman.

“For that I have so many people to thank. People who’ve made a deep and lasting impact on my life, just from their paths crossing with mine. People who have helped me, trained me, or flat-out raised me. Or even just believed in me. Thank you, truly.”

Hurts found himself behind Tua Tagovailoa for the whole season, although still bagged the headlines in the SEC Championship Game when he took over from his replacement – who was having a horrible game – to help the Tide come back and beat Georgia and take them to the College Football Play-Off.

It was a mirror from Hurts’ National Championship Game effort in 2018, when Hurts’ poor performance found him replaced by Tua, who threw the game-winning touchdown to beat the Bulldogs.

Hurts will automatically be the favourite to replace Heisman winner Kyler Murray, who decided to leave Norman to go the NFL.

If we’re cynical, Hurts will be a step-down from Murray. He’s spent all last season as a replacement, he’s got great out-of-pocket speed but hardly the elite arm that Murray and his predecessor Baker Mayfield owned. And while we see him profit in the regular season schedule, he might have more of a problem in the College Football Play-Off, for which the Sooners are a favourite.

Right, so the National Championship game had some heroes on both sides – and it had some G.O.A.T.S. and it had some goats. Don’t despair Alabama fans – not all your players were terrible, and don’t get too hot Clemson fans – some of your players were pretty ordinary.

So here we go:

EXCEPTIONAL

Trevor Lawrence (Clemson): As repeated ad nauseum on our Twitter page, Lawrence may look like a giraffe throwing a javelin, but boy, does he do it well. He wasn’t wonderful in the first quarter, but he warmed up and took Alabama apart. This was helped by some circus catches from his secondary, but heck, this was a Future Heisman Of 2019 performance.

Travis Etienne (Clemson): Etienne is one of those great Clemson running backs that can score a hat-trick but still look a little under-the-radar. His line? 86 yards, 3 TDs (2 running, 1 throwing). While Alabama kept him somewhat bottled up, they couldn’t cope with him in the last 20-30 yards in the field.

Justyn Ross (Clemson): Circus catch after circus catch, Ross was exceptional. 153 yards, 1 TDs off 6 catches, it was frightening what he did to Alabama’s secondary.

Jerry Jeudy (Alabama): Alabama’s danger man throughout the night, Jeudy had 139 yards and a 1 TD, and if Tua had thrown properly, he could probably have had more than one touchdown. He , we’ll be shocked if Jeudy doesn’t end up as one of the Tide’s all-time wide receivers.

Anfernee Jennings (Alabama): Despite the Crimson Tide’s woeful performance, Jennings caused a lot of trouble for Clemson’s offense, creating 3 solo tackles including a tackle for loss and a pass defended. His long arms will be used in the NFL for a long, long time.

Isaiah Simmons (Clemson): A destructive force wherever he went, Simmons ended the game as the game’s top tackler (9 tackles, 7 solo with 1 TFL).

Quinnen Williams (Alabama): Williams was doubled up almost all night long so we didn’t see the numbers from the Bar of Soap as we expected, but unlike his colleagues, Williams kept going until the end. If he goes to the Draft, he should be a Top 3 pick.

Brent Venables (DC, Clemson): This was an astonishing display by Venables’ defense, who was in Tagovailoa almost all night long. Every look seemed different and Alabama couldn’t seem to deal with it. They also bottled up Alabama’s running backs, too, limiting them to an average of 4.0 yards/carry. Everyone talks about how defense wins championships….and that held firm in this one. Venables is already the second-best DC in college football behind Dave Aranda (he earns $2.2 million), but make him the first, Dabo.

Dabo Swinney (Clemson): Venables may take a lot of the credit, but Swinney’s the CEO, and the CEO won a National Championship.

ORDINARY

Hunter Renfrow (Clemson): A guy who got the headlines as Clemson’s version of Rudy (and continues to do so), Renfrow did very little (2 receptions, 10 yards), apart from piss me off because Dabo didn’t go for 51 with a throw to him in the end-zone to give him my vaunted Jeudy/Renfrow TD double.

Jaylen Harris, Damien Harris, Josh Jacobs (Alabama): Alabama had 37 touches to Clemson’s 31, but the Tide couldn’t punch any of them into the end-zone. Maybe it was bad play-calling or may it was bad rushing, but this was very ordinary. Still, Josh Jacobs can grin this week – he’s become a new father.

The kickers (Clemson/Alabama): Both Greg Heugel (Clemson) and Joseph Bulovas (Alabama) missed extra points, but nailed field goals.

The refs: Missed a couple of pass interference calls (on either side) as well as most of the holding calls and a targeting call, but – especially in the case of the PIs – they seemed to let the game play.

QUITE MISERABLE

Tua Tagovailoa (Alabama): We expected more, honestly. The accuracy wasn’t there, and he missed some wide open attempts. Blame the ankle. Blame the hand. Blame anything you want, but head-wise, he just didn’t seem there.

ABSOLUTELY MISERABLE

Nick Saban (Alabama): This was a terrible game for Saban, and he admitted himself. The Tide didn’t execute anything very well, and he was outcoached by Dabo Swinney. He’ll replace Mike Locksley, and it’ll be interesting to see who he gets in. We hope it’s going to be Kliff Kingsbury, who has already had 3 jobs this offseason (fired from Texas Tech, hired by USC as OC, leaves USC to be hired by Arizona Cardinals as head coach)!!

It wasn’t his father who gave Tua the belt on Monday night – it was the Clemson defense.

Tua’s first interception – a pick-six – was awful enough, and his second quarter interception was even worse than that.

In the end, he finished 22-34 with 296 yards, 2 TDs and 2 INTs, and was pulled before the game ended. His replacement Jalen Hurts (0-2, 0 yards and -4 yards rushing) wasn’t good either, as he – like the man he replaced- struggled to deal with an on-fire Brent Venables defense, starring Christian Wilkins.

And like the horror show 4th-and-6 trick play, it didn’t come off.

This was supposed to be the crowning of Tua Tagovailoa. But it wasn’t. 

Tua had the beautiful throwing action and the support of 400 Hawaiians as well as Chris Fowler and a drooling Kirk Herbstreit, while they were playing a guy who looked something between ‘Sunshine’ from ‘Remember The Titans’ and one of them stoner types from ‘Dazed And Confused’, and threw like a giraffe throwing a javelin. Alabama was a 5-1/2 point favourite, and it seemed all the talking heads – apart from Lee Corso – were saying that this was generous.

In the end, the 44-16 could have been worse if Dabo had elected to do what he’d done all year long on teams and run the score up a little more. But still, 44-16 is in any books a beating of beatings. 

Next year, the ‘Cult of Tua’ will be a bit quieter as the Kool-Aid drinkers all jump to the ‘Cult of Trevor’. And that won’t be such a bad thing. For two out of the last three games, Tua has shown that he’s not Joe Montana. Yet.

The good thing for Tua is that the receiving talent is all coming back, and the running back talent will be as strong as usual. He’ll be fine.

And with less expectation, that’s no bad thing.

This Monday is the College Football finale between two teams that EVERYBODY thought would get there: Alabama and Clemson.

It’s no secret that both teams are amazing. Both teams are stacked with first round draft picks. Both teams have five-star quarterbacks who been revelations. Both teams have insanely good wide receivers and running backs. And their defenses? Whoa.

The only bad thing about the National Championship is that it’s going to be played in Santa Clara, California. My brother – who lives there – said to me: “Why in the hell are they having a massive college football game during rush-hour on a weekday? The place is hard to get to and isn’t a great stadium experience? The 49ers can’t even fill the place.”

But onto the game itself….Even if it’s played in front of a few thousand people. 

Thinking about the game in the shower today, all I could think about it the reasons why both teams will win. Alabama will win if their offensive line can stop Christian Wilkins and his gang from getting to Tua – something they weren’t amazing at against Georgia and only a little better for three quarters against Oklahoma (although they smashed it in the first quarter!). Give Tua the time, and Tua will rip apart a Clemson secondary that gave up 510 yards (FIVE HUNDRED AND TEN) passing to South Carolina, who then was shut out by mighty Virginia. True, they were excellent against Notre Dame….but Notre Dame’s passing offense was 37th during the season. Ian Book was a manageable QB, but he’s no Tua – and the weapons he has with Isaiah Buggs III and the freakshow known as Jerry Jeudy.

On the other side, Alabama’s passing defense has just given up  300 yards to Georgia, and 308 to Kyler Murray and the Oklahoma Sooners. If Trevor Lawrence – who’s a great quarterback in himself despite looking like a giraffe throwing a javelin – can get the ball out quickly and to his wide receivers Tee Higgins and Hunter Renfrow without getting murdered by Quinnen Williams, Alabama might have problems. We don’t think Travis Etienne’s going to have a big game on the ground because running through that Alabama defensive corps will be murder for him.

But let’s be honest. Both sides are incredibly equal to each other. Both sides give up around 530 yards a game. Both sides have scored around 45 points per game – helped by the amount of crappy teams on their schedule and their up-tempo offenses. Clemson is better against the rush (predictably), helped by the sort of wall that Donald Trump’s pleading to be put up against Mexico. And coaching-wise, both Nick Saban and Dabo Swinney are doing incredible jobs.

This is going to the wire.

PREDICTION: Alabama 30, Clemson 27.

If you believe in such thing as social media noise, then Twitter shouted the loudest.

And in particular, the insufferable yelling came from the SEC – and most particularly Georgia and Alabama fans.

RANT NO.1: WHY WASN’T GEORGIA IN THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP PLAY-OFF AHEAD OF NOTRE DAME?

Georgia fans were screaming their nuts off about the fact that Notre Dame’s blow-out by Clemson meant that they should have been in the blow-out instead of the Irish.

“They don’t even have their own conference” said some. “How could the Committee talk about the best four teams? Sure Georgia, in their loss to Alabama, showed that they are one of the best teams in the country?”, groused another. “Notre Dame didn’t play anyone this year”, grumbled some more. And when we say “another” and “some more”, we meant Georgia fans in their hundreds – and that – of course – including, Georgia players, Georgia legend and ESPN analyst David Pollock, as well as SEC Network anchor Peter Burns.

And if you wrote something positive about Notre Dame or Oklahoma getting in the play-off, the rage coming out of people’s mouths – particularly from ‘SEC fans’ – was enough to make Donald Trump’s haters blush.

Georgia’s basic premise was this: The Bulldogs took Alabama really close, and therefore we were one of the best teams in the country.

Never mind the fact that they got the doors blown off them at LSU. Never mind the fact that they blew a big lead to Alabama in the SEC Championship Game. Never mind that Notre Dame finished with nine wins over bowl-eligible teams. Never mind that Oklahoma won its conference and avenged the loss against the team that it was beaten by earlier in the season (Wait: Did Georgia do the same last year??). Logic got a combative growl from doggies everywhere.

Of course, if the Committee and ESPN had sorted out an 8-team playoff, we never would have had the arguments in the first place, but that’s simple semantics.

BTW, one of the better lines from Twitter was: “If the Georgia players had expended as much energy on beating LSU as they did on Twitter tonight, maybe they would have won”. 

RANT NO.2: TUA SHOULD HAVE GOT THE HEISMAN

Anyone who’s anyone knows that Alabama fans are basically bad losers. If they win, they think they should have won better, and if they lose, it’s the end of the world. When Alabama beat Oklahoma comfortably in the second play-off game, Alabama fans turned their rage to the fact that Kyler Murray had beaten out Baby Tua to the Heisman Trophy.

Don’t get us wrong: They were more pissed off and jealous than Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction before the play-off game. But now that Alabama had beaten Oklahoma, they were even more pissed off.

The problem with the rage is that logic – again – seemed to have defeated them.

Here are both of their arguments….

• ‘Kyler Murray didn’t play any good defenses this year because the Big XII sucked” – That one was true. Then again, the one big-time defense that Tua played this year (Georgia), beat him so badly he had to be replaced by Jalen Hurts. Kyler Murray had an exceptional season. Even if the Big XII had terrible numbers, Murray was making plays with his legs and his arms. 
• ‘When will Kyler ever play a good defense? Tua faced one in practice every day of the week’ – Actually, Kyler Murray did face a good defense this year, and he proved he was a Heisman quarterback. After a poor start when his offensive line was obliterated, Murray threw for 308 yards and 2 TDs and ran for 109 yards and 1 TD on 17 carries on this defense. That defense was Alabama’s. And Murray didn’t do that because Alabama. After a poor first quarter, Murray stepped it up a notch, and the game finished with Bama winning by 11.

But again – where Alabama fans are concerned – logic took a beating.

I love the bowl time of year. I get to ignore politics for a few hours and sit and balance a beer on my belly and watch college football.

This is a beautiful time to be a SEC fan. We get to generally see a National Champion, and we get to celebrate by haunting others with our war cry: “SEC! SEC! SEC!”.

I was going to go for a long, weaving preview of every bowl, but I realised that this (might) suffice.

So here we go – Why EVERY SEC will win its bowl game.

1. Why Vanderbilt (-4)will beat Baylor: Vanderbilt can stop someone, Baylor can’t. Vanderbilt’s got one of the most underrated running backs in college football in Ke’Shawn Vaughn, who ran for over 1,000 yards in the regular season. Vandy QB Kyle Shurmur’s better than what Baylor will offer, too.
2. Why Auburn (-3.5) will beat Purdue: Because Jarrett Stidham NEEDS a good bowl game to lift his NFL Draft status, and Gus Malzahn needs a good bowl game to get some ju-ju off his back. And also, Purdue really isn’t that good.
3.  Why Florida will beat Michigan (-6): Florida will bring back all of its talent from 2018 for this one, while Michigan is going to have some heavy losses. Michigan winning by almost a touchdown? Are you kidding me? Chomp, Chomp, Harbaugh.
4. Why South Carolina (-5.5) will beat Virginia: Virginia isn’t very good. Despite Deebo Samuel electing to forgo this game so that he can concentrate on the draft, South Carolina will be just fine without him. Jake Bentley will pick apart Virgnia’s secondary with his bevvy of tight ends (Kiel Pollard, Jacob August, Kyle Markway and KC Crosby).
5. Why Missouri (-9) will beat Oklahoma State: Missouri’s en fuego after getting Kelly Bryant to sign for next year, and Drew Lock’s coming back for his swansong. Oklahoma State’s going to miss its best RB (Justice Hill) because he’s declared early. This will be fun, but Missouri will win. Double digits. Mark it down.
6. Why Texas A&M (-7) will beat NC State: Because Texas A&M’s a good team, and NC State’s ‘D’ is porous at best. Kellen Mond will have a field day.
7. Why Mississippi State (-7) will beat Iowa: Iowa’s offensive line won’t be able to stop Mississippi State. 96-tackle anchor Jeffrey Simmons has said he is GOING to play before he leaves for a bright future in the NFL. Good luck, Hawkeyes.
8. Why LSU (-7.5) will beat UCF: Because UCF’s QB Mackenzie Milton isn’t playing. LSU will grind UCF into the ground using their bevvy of running backs. This will get ugly.
9. Why Kentucky will beat Penn State (6.5): Because even if Penn State stops Benny Snell, Josh Allen’s going to kill Trace McSorley on the other side of the ball.
10. Why Georgia (-13) will beat Texas: Texas hasn’t got a great defense, and Georgia will run straight through them. It might be exciting early with Texas’ big wide receivers, but Sam Ehrlinger’s moxiness will get crushed by UGA’s defense.
11. Why Alabama (-14) will beat Oklahoma: Because Oklahoma couldn’t stop a damned thing all season, and it ain’t about to start now.

Stop if you’ve heard this before about recruiting: It’s an Alabama and Georgia world, and everyone else just lives in it.

Every time there was a tweet from the two schools’ Twitter during the National Signing Day flurry, there was another four or five-star recruit that wanted to play for Nick Saban or Kirby Smart.

Everywhere you looked, the Crimson Tide and the Bulldogs were in everyone’s thoughts, and it seemed a rarity when a player decided to go elsewhere.

Alabama pulled in five-star RB Trey Sanders, OT Evan Neal, and DE Antonio Alfano, while Georgia celebrated the signings of five stars OC Clay Webb, DE Jermaine Johnson, CB DJ Daniel, while DE Nolan Smith, LB Nakobe Dean, DT Travon Walker, and WR Dominik Blaylock also either signed letters of intent or enrolled early.

Georgia only signed 3 players below a four-star 24-7 ranking, while Alabama just one.

Alabama pulled in 26 commits, while Georgia had 23. Nick Saban’s number was higher due to the attrition of juniors going to the NFL.

THE SEC RULED RECRUITING

Behind them, Jimbo Fisher was doing great things in Texas, vaulting Texas A&M to 3rd overall headed up by five-stars OT Kenyan Green and DT DeMarvin Neal, while LSU was fourth. They added Baton Rouge local CB Derek Stingley, RB John Emery Jr, OC Kardell Thomas, and LB Marcel Brooks.

Whether this will lead to a deeper SEC West in 2019 with everybody beating everybody is anybody’s guess, but Georgia will probably dominate the East. 

Auburn was 11th, Florida 16th, Tennessee 17th, Mississippi State 19th, Arkansas 20th, South Carolina 22nd, and Ole Miss 23rd. Kentucky and Missouri were 32nd and 33rd respectively – although Missouri’s biggest recruit may have been the signings of the ‘silly season’ when former Clemson QB Kelly Bryant elected to play in Columbia. Vanderbilt was 51st.

Alabama offensive co-ordinator Mike Locksley is leaving to become the new head coach at Maryland.

Locksley was given the Broyles Award earlier this week for being the country’s top assistant coach, helping the Crimson Tide to be one of the country’s best offensive teams. His crowning glory may well be on Saturday with Tua Tagovailoa is given the Heisman Award.

“I am thrilled to be returning home and to have the opportunity to lead the Maryland Football program,” Locksley said in a statement. “This has always been a special place for me and my family, and I am honored to take on this role at the state’s flagship institution. Our goal is to create an atmosphere and environment focused on the total development of our student-athletes. Our focus will always be to help them become more successful in all areas of their life through their association with our program.”

Although Locksley – who is expected to be introduced on Thursday – will compete in a division with Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State and Penn State, he’s seen as one of the best recruiters in the country.

Locksley is expected to help the Crimson Tide’s offense in preparation for their match-up with Oklahoma is what promises to be an entertaining game. Having said that, if I’m Nick Saban, I would let him concentrate on recruiting and one of his 199 assistants take the ‘temporary offensive co-ordinator role’.

Locksley’s only previous experience as head coach was at New Mexico, where he had a 2-26 record between 2009 and 2011 and was once suspended for punching an assistant.

Maryland won’t be looking for such fun and games – particularly after last season when player Jordan McNair tragically died during summer camp, eventually costing DJ Durkin his job.

Locksley is Alabama’s third offensive co-ordinator in 3 years to leave the Tide. Last year Brian Daboll left to be the Buffalo Bills OC and before that Lane Kiffin departed for Florida Atlantic. Amusingly, Daboll hasn’t had a great season with the Bills, and Kiffin’s second year has been nothing short of a disaster.